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In traditional ecclesiastical history, heresy was understood as dissent from the beliefs of the majority on the part of a minority which was organized as a church and had developed a defined system of doctrinal tenets. Today, heresy is seen as the result of a process of marginalization or in terms of the historical failure of a particular religious movement or teaching, Movements or creeds that were later termed heretical could hold sway over long periods of time, and thus themselves set the standards of orthodoxy for their period. The discussion suggests that the so-called disputes over Monenergism and Monotheletism were primarily conducted in writing, and are above all to be seen in the context of the rivalry between Rome, with its claim to primacy, and Constantinople. Only in a very restricted sense could one attribute a real political or social importance to the phenomenon.